Jaffa Gate (Bab Al-Khalil) by Bonfils
‘The gate in this picture is known in Arabic as Bab al-Khalil, the Gate of Abraham. In English, it is called the Jaffa Gate. It is the only entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City from the west, and it was the stage for two famous encounters between East and West. In 1917, the British general Edmund Allenby crossed this threshold on foot as a victor over the Ottoman Empire. In 1898, a gap was made in the wall next to the gate so that the German Kaiser Wilhelm II – a guest of the Ottomans – could enter Jerusalem on horseback.
The picture was taken even earlier – in the 1870s, 20 to 30 years before the Kaiser’s arrival. But already we can see this gate is an important spot for visitors from faraway lands. To its left is a sign in English that reads “Cook’s Tourist Office, inside Jaffa Gate”. Cook is the now world-famous Thomas Cook, who with his son John Mason Cook began taking European and American tourists to Palestine in 1869. Photographs like this one, taken by the Frenchman Felix Bonfils, were at least partly responsible for bringing them to the Holy Land.’ (MM)